Juice extractors commonly have a base housing a motor and controls therefor, a centrifugal type blade basket for comminuting the produce to release the juices, a filter for separating the produce into juice and pulp, a juice bowl in which the juice collects, and a lid for covering the juice bowl during operation.
Such juicers are subject to a variety of design considerations. It is generally desirable to: (a) maximize the amount of juice extracted from a given piece of produce, while (b) minimizing the amount of pulp in the juice. However, these goals must be obtained within parameters determined by manufacturing costs, ease of assembly, use and cleaning, and user safety.
Additionally, at least certain components of these juice extractors must be cleaned after each use. Current juicers can be difficult for certain members of the market, such as the elderly, to disassemble for cleaning. This is particularly true of the blade basket which, because it is located within the juice bowl, is often difficult to remove from the motor shaft.
Further, because the process of extracting juice from produce usually involves rapidly spinning blades, precautions must be taken to reduce the risk of injury caused by the user coming into contact with the moving blades. These precautions are usually in the form of an interlock switch system for energizing the motor that rotates the blades. Such switch systems must not unduly hinder the operation of the juice extractor or the user may attempt to bypass them; they should also be inexpensively implemented to allow the extractor to be sold at a reasonable price.
In order to keep the costs of manufacturing to a minimum, the juice bowl, which collects the juice and funnels it to the exterior of the juice extractor, should be as compact as possible. However, with such compact juice bowls, the spinning blade basket can cause juice to be propelled through the spout hole in the juice bowl and beyond the container designed to collect the juice. This causes a loss of juice and creates a mess in the working area.
It is also necessary that the vibration of the motor be damped or suppressed to prevent vibration of the extractor. Otherwise, this vibration may cause the extractor to walk or scoot off of the surface on which it is placed.